PLAYER OF THE WEEK Tulsa's Kelly Miller was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week. This is Miller's first of career honor.
Miller, a sophomore from Tucson, Ariz., (Salpointe Catholic), had four hits in a doubleheader sweep of Hawai'i on April 18. The Golden Hurricane is now 9-3 in league play three games behind first place Fresno State. The catcher posted three doubles and a home run for a slugging percentage of 1.667. She led the Golden Hurricane with a .714 on-base percentage. Miller currently ranks second on the team in hits (47), doubles (11) and slugging percentage (.517).
Other player of the week nominees included: Mitzi Ing, Fresno State; Candice Rainwater, Nevada and Elisa Barrios, San Jose State.
PITCHER OF THE WEEK Fresno State's Jamie Southern was named the WAC Pitcher of the Week. This is Southern's fourth honor of the season.
Southern, a junior from Clovis, Calif., (Clovis), went 3-0 with two shutouts and a save, while not allowing a walk and striking out 25 in 22.1 innings of work. She became the 22nd NCAA Division I player to have 1,000 or more career strikeouts on April 15 versus UTEP. She set the mark against the Miners when she struck out 10 in game one of the Bulldogs' 3-0 win to move her career total to 1,005. Southern tossed a two-hitter in the win, her fifth of the year and 15th of her career. In the night cap, she picked up a save in the night cap against the Miners and struck out three to move her career total to 1,008. The save was her third of the year and eighth of her career. The saved moved her to No. 2 all-time in WAC history. Two days later she recorded a pair of wins, including a shutout, over San Jose State. Southern also added four hits and three RBI in four games for the Bulldogs.
Other pitcher of the week nominees included: Marla Pinkston, Louisiana Tech; Candice Rainwater, Nevada and Maren Genow, Tulsa.
BATTER UP This week, Hawaii remains on the road, looking to break a four-game losing streak against Nevada. The Rainbow Wahine lost all four games at Tulsa last week. The Golden Hurricane are now two games behind first place Fresno State. Tulsa will play only one WAC doubleheader on the road against Louisiana Tech on April 24. The Bulldogs take a week off from WAC play to take on UC Santa Barbara on April 21. UTEP will look to break a 24-game losing streak at home against San Jose State on April 24.
SOUTHERN REACHES 1,000 STRIKEOUTS Fresno States Jamie Southern became the 22nd NCAA Division I player to have 1,000 or more career strikeouts. She accomplished the feat in the Bulldogs 3-0 victory over UTEP on April 15. In the first game of the doubleheader, Southern struck out 10 to move her career total to 1,005. Tallying 25 strikeouts in four appearances last week, her career total stands at 1,020, which places her No. 21 all-time in NCAA Division I history. In a 15-day span in the month of April, five current Division I hurlers have reached the 1,000 career strikeout plateau. Southern is the only junior. She and four other senior right-handed pitchers have eclipsed the 1,000 mark.
CLARK BREAKS WAC RECORDS Last week, Fresno State sophomore Christina Clark hit five home runs against Hawaii, breaking the school's and WAC's single-season home run mark (18) after tying Fresno State's season home run record a year ago with 15. She is also the quickest player to hit 16 home runs in a season, 48 games.
Hitting three long balls in the Bulldogs' game one 5-2 win over the Rainbow Wahine on April 10, she also set a new Fresno State and league record for most home runs (3) in a contest. The old school record was two by Nina Lindenberg, who hit two in a game four different times in 1997. The old WAC mark was two by several different players, most recently in 2003 (Nevada's Lindsey Hall and Fresno State's Lori Hoffman).
SOUTHERN AND CLARK FINALISTS Fresno States Jamie Southern and Christina Clark were both named to the Amateur Softball Association's Top 25 finalist list for the Collegiate Player of the Year award. Sophomore All-America Clark and junior All-America Southern were two of 25 who made the first cut of the season.
After entering the season on the ASA's initial Top 40 watch list, this award is considered the Heisman Trophy in women's collegiate softball and is the only national player of the year award.
The Top 25 list of players currently represents 18 colleges and six different Conferences.
The list will be reduced to ten players on April 28 and three finalists will be announced on May 11. The winner of the 2004 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award will be announced May 26 at the opening ceremonies of the NCAA College World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Southern was a final three finalist as a freshman in 2002.
WAC SOFTBALL ON TV College Sports Television has announced its 2004 softball line up and part of its softball package this season will feature Fresno States conference match up against Tulsa on May 8 in Fresno, Calif. CSTV will broadcast the first game of the WAC doubleheader and will re-air the game the next day on DirecTV.
SCORING MACHINES Second-place Tulsa has scored the most runs this season. After 53 games, the Golden Hurricane have scored 229 runs. Their success this season is due in part to the fact that they have allowed only 92 runs, least in the WAC. Tulsa leads the league in batting average (.289) and ERA (1.32). The last team to lead the league in both batting average and ERA was Fresno State in 1999 when the Bulldogs hit .428 with an ERA of 0.51.
EXTRA FRAMES Hawaii is the only school in the WAC to be undefeated in extra inning games. Hawaii is a perfect 4-0 in extra frames this season. The Rainbow Wahine defeated Wisconsin 7-5 in nine innings on Feb. 14, then turned around the next day and beat No. 13 DePaul, 8-7, in eight innings. Both of those games were a part of the Rebel Classic at UNLV. The last two extra-inning wins came against the College of Charleston in the Kipa Aloha Malihini Tournament. UH won 5-4 March 4 and 3-2 March 7 as both games went eight innings.
Tulsa is the only school to have not played an extra inning game this season. Nevada is the only other WAC school to have a winning record in extra inning games with a 3-2 record. With a 6-5 win against Saint Marys on April 5, San Jose State won its first extra inning game. The Spartans are 1-3.
LEAGUE LEADERS Fresno State All-Americans Christina Clark and Jamie Southern continue to dominate the WAC leader board. Clark, looks to write her name all of the WAC record, as she continues to lead the league in hitting with a .396 batting average. She is also the WAC leader in hits (67), runs scored (47), RBI (42), home runs (18) and total bases (134). Southern is the league leader in wins (28), strikeouts (280) and ERA (0.42). Nevadas Jiliane Hartfiel still leads the league in doubles (16) and triples (5). Louisiana Techs Amber Miles leads the WAC in stolen bases with 18 in 19 attempts. As a team, Tulsa leads the WAC in batting average (.289) and team ERA (1.32).
AGAINST THE BEST The WAC is 11-32 against ranked teams so far this season. Hawaii is 2-6 against ranked teams. Hawaii has two wins with wins against Oregon State and DePaul. The Rainbow Wahine also have a losses to Tennessee, No. 4 California and most recently two road games to the Cardinal. Fresno State is 8-7 against ranked teams with its most recent wins coming against No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 13 Pacific. The Bulldogs also have wins against South Carolina, Arizona State and Texas to name a few. Fresno State has losses against No. 2 UCLA, No. 1 Arizona, No. 4 Florida State and No. 12 Stanford.
Louisiana Tech is 0-7 with a loss most recently to No. 7 Louisiana-Lafayette. The Lady Techsters also have losses to then-No. 12 Louisiana-Lafayette and another instate rival No. 13 LSU. The Lady Techsters also lost twice to Tennessee. Nevada lost to both No. 3 Arizona and No. 23 Arizona State. The Wolf Pack have also lost a pair of games to Louisiana-Lafayette. San Jose State has played the toughest schedule this season. The Spartans are 0-7 with six losses to teams in the top 10, including Stanford, Alabama and California. Tulsa also has a loss to Alabama.
UTEP has lost to UCLA, Georgia Tech and No. 13 Tennessee. The Golden Hurricane earned a home win against No. 13 Oklahoma on April 5.
ON THE BASEPATHS Fresno State went 4-0 at home last week after recording sweeps over UTEP and San Jose State. With the wins, the program collected its 500th conference victory in 27 years with a current total of 501-115. Fresno State made its only home appearance of April
last week. Fresno State has won 15 of its last 16 and 20 of its last 25 with four of the five losses to ranked teams. The Bulldogs improved to 13-1 in WAC play. With 14 home runs hit in league play to date, Fresno State is five shy of tying the WACs single-season league mark (19 by CS Northridge, 1993). The Bulldogs picked up 10 or more hits in a single game against UTEP and San Jose State. It marked the 12th and 13th time on the year with 10 or more hits collected in a contest.
Hawaii is still in search of its first road win this week, as the Rainbow Wahine travel to Reno, Nev., for a four-game series with Wolf Pack. Hawaii is currently 0-10 in road games and 6-4 in neutral games. The Rainbow Wahine are looking to break a four-game losing streak after dropping four games in Tulsa. Hawaii fell to fourth place after the series sweep by the Golden Hurricane. The Rainbow Wahine are 5-7 in league play and fell to 23-26 overall. Offensively, the Rainbow Wahine are led by Stacy Ritter, who is hitting .305 with 23 RBI. Freshman Tyleen Tausaga is fourth in the league in RBI with 32. Last seasons WAC Co-Pitcher of the Year Melissa Coogan, only has an 8-14 record, but she is second in the WAC in strikeouts with 132.
Louisiana Tech has won seven of its last nine games. The Lady Techster hope to continue its recent improved play as the Lady Techsters travel to Louisiana-Monroe on April 20 for a single game. Although Louisiana-Monroe won the first meeting of the series this year with an 8-3 decision in Ruston, Louisiana Tech has been the hotter team recently as the Lady Techsters only two losses in the last 16 days came to No. 7 ranked Louisiana-Lafayette. After the non-conference games with Louisiana-Monroe and Centenary, the Lady Techsters will take on Tulsa at hone on April 24.
Nevada snapped a five-game losing streak with a sweep of UTEP at Idlewild Park last week. Nevada hosts its third and fourth-straight WAC opponents when Hawaii arrives in Reno for a four-game set. Freshman Tiffany Hoeft and sophomore Robyn Ford-Feitz have the lowest ERA on the Wolf Pack with 2.15 ERA's. Hoeft and Candice Rainwater share the team lead with nine victories each. Senior Stacy Mueller leads the team with a .314 batting average. The freshman leads in hits (53), doubles (16), triples (5), RBI (31), total bases (79) and stolen bases (13).
San Jose State broke a four-game losing streak last week with a sweep of Nevada on the road. Pitcher Carol Forbes took the win in both games. Forbes is now 6-13 this season. After the sweep, the Spartans were swept by No. 12 Fresno State. San Jose State did score five runs, four earned, off of All-American pitcher Jamie Southern in a 6-5 loss. This week, the Spartans look to reach the .500 mark in WAC games with a doubleheader at winless UTEP on April. 24.
UTEP looks to break a 24-game losing streak and a 14-game WAC losing streak this week. The Miners are looking for their first ever WAC win. The Miners will return home on April 24 for the first two games of an eight-game home stand against San Jose State. In San Jose on March 21, the Spartans swept the Miners in a doubleheader, 5-4 and 4-0. The Miners have only scored two runs in their last four games. UTEP is hitting .210 overall this season, while hitting .196 in league games.
Tulsa marked yet another first time off the list. After defeating Hawaii for the first time in Tulsa on April 18, the Golden Hurricane completed its first ever series sweep of the Rainbow Wahine with 2-1 and 5-4 WAC victories on April 19. Tulsa has now won nine consecutive games. Tulsa will play at Southwest Missouri State on Wednesday, April 21, for a non-conference doubleheader. The Hurricane will return to WAC action on Saturday with a twinbill at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La. The Tulsa pitching staff has broken into the school record books. Tulsa hurlers currently have the program's lowest ERA ever at 1.32, the fewest walks (50) and lowest opponent batting average (.209). TU has broken the school record for saves in a season with seven, the previous record was five, a feat matched three previous times.
FRESNO STATE PICKED TO WIN TITLE The WAC softball coaches selected Fresno State to win the 2004 WAC regular season crown. Fresno State has been picked to take the preseason crown eight out of the last nine years. In 2002, Hawaii was chosen to win the title. The coaches also voted on 2004 preseason award winners. Fresno State swept both categories when shortstop Christina Clark was voted preseason Player of the Year and Jamie Southern earned preseason Pitcher of the Year honors. Southern is the first WAC player to earn Pitcher of the Year honors three-straight years. Fresno State edged out Hawaii with 34 points to Hawaiis 33. Tulsa finished in third with 26 points. Second-year WAC team Nevada finished fourth with 18 points after a strong freshman campaign. Louisiana Tech and San Jose State tied for fifth with 15 points. UTEP, playing its first season of softball, was picked to finish seventh with six points.
WAC ADDS NEW MEXICO STATE AND UTAH STATE On Oct. 23, 2003, the WAC issued invitations to New Mexico State and Utah State effective July 1, 2005, the same date that Rice, SMU and Tulsa are moving to Conference USA. In softball, Utah State is 7-32 this season. New Mexico State is 9-37. The Aggies have two wins over UTEP and loss to San Jose State.